Teenage Pregnancy Strategy - Background

Every year in England around 39,000 teenagers become pregnant, this includes nearly 8,000 who are under 16.  Britain has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe.

The Teenage Pregnancy Strategy was launched by the government in 1999 following a report by the Social Exclusion Unit. This strategy aimed to dramatically reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies in Britain and to tackle social exclusion among young parents and their families.

Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Targets

There are two main headline targets:

• To reduce the UK rate of under 18 conceptions by 50% by 2010 with a 15% interim target for 2004. Leicestershire’s target is a 45% reduction by 2010.
• Enable 60% of young parents to re-enter Education, Employment and Training (EET) by 2010.

Leicestershire’s Teenage Pregnancy Partnership

The role of the Teenage Pregnancy Partnership (TPP) is to implement and facilitate a local action plan to ensure that the National targets are achieved.

The Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership includes a large number of agencies who work together to prevent unplanned pregnancies and support young parents.

Who are our partners?

The Partnership consists of representatives from a range of agencies who all have a key role to play in the achievement of the TP targets:

• Leicestershire County Council
• Leicestershire and Rutland NHS
• Leicester City Council
• Connexions
• Youth Service
• District Councils
• Learning and Skills Council
• University Hospitals Trust Leicester
• Voluntary sector
• YOS - Youth Offending Service
• FIS – Family Information Service
• Further Education

Our partners also include young people, young families, parents of teenagers and the general public.

Aims and Objectives

The Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership needs to ensure that:

• Young people, practitioners, parents/carers and our partners know about local service provision, how and when to access it.
• Young people have access to the information and support they need to make informed choices about their lives and relationships.
• Joined up and consistent messages about relationships and sex reach young people, practitioners and the wider community.
• All partners understand why teenage pregnancy matters and that it is everybody’s business.

For more information on how the partnership is working to reduce the under 18 conception rate in Leicestershire and support young parents and parents to be to re-enter education, employment and training contact us for a copy of our 2009-2010 Action Plan.